Oscar Avatare

Honors 221 C Final Paper

The politics and regulations surrounding oil can be just as murky as the water the oil is
spilled in. A thorough examination of the three biggest spills in US history, the 1969 Santa
Barbara spill, the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill all revealed
institutional and regulatory shortcomings that were attempted to be rectified in the aftermath of
the spills. Thus, to examine the changes that occurred in public policy and regulations, the effects
of the spills must be examined and understood in detail to understand the necessity of what
transpired afterwards. Since oil spills will always happen no matter what laws and regulations
exist, it is crucial that the legislative and regulatory responses effectively address the issues
raised by the spill. Many times public pressure and outrage is what is needed to cause change to
the laws and regulations that govern the oil industry. Thus, I will examine how the 1969 Santa
Barbara spill, the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill were landmark
events in terms of oil spills and drove the creation of laws and regulations that transformed the
oil industry.
While oil has been ubiquitous throughout our society for the past 100 years, the
regulations surrounding it havent always been so prevalent. In the sixty years before the Santa
Barbara spill of 1969, the United States increasingly turned to oil as its primary natural resource
to fuel its economic expansion.1 At the time, the drive for oil outweighed regulatory and
environmental concerns. Also, the control of the API and oil industry over information and
government regulatory agencies in the 1920s allowed them to frame the debate over oil, which

1 "OCS Lands Act History." Boem. US Government, n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.

meant that regulatory issues were neglected and ignored for decades.2 The only law passed
regarding oil during this initial time period was the Oil Pollution Act of 1924, which forbade
intentional oil discharges from vessels in the coastal waters of the United States.3 This law was
very weak and would foreshadow the dominance of the oil industry over regulations even up to
this day. Thirty years later the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act was passed and defined the
Outer Continental Shelf as all submerged lands lying 3 miles offshore as under U.S. jurisdiction
and authorized the Secretary of the Interior to lease those lands for mineral development.4 Then
after 1953, no major legislation regarding oil happened until the devastating Torrey Canyon spill
that occurred in the English Channel in 1967. This lead to the first National Contingency Plan
developed in 1968, which created the federal government's plan for responding to oil spills by
coordinating contingency plans and responders.5 However, when the Platform Alpha spill began
in Santa Barbara on January 28, 1969, no organization or institution was prepared to deal with
the sheer scale and devastation of the environmental disaster that ensued.
The Platform Alpha spill happened due to inadequate safety precautions taken on an
offshore drilling rig where a pipe was being removed from a 3,500 foot well.6 The difference in
pressure caused by the removal of the pipe wasnt compensated for because not enough mud was

2 Pratt, Joseph A. Letting the Grandchildren Do It: Environmental Planning during the Ascent of Oil as a
Major Energy Source. 4th ed. Vol. 2. N.p.: U of California, 1980. 28-61. Web.
3 Ibid
4 OCS Lands Act History
5 "National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP) Overview." EPA.
Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2016.
6 Clarke, Keith C., and Jeffrey J. Hemphill. "The Santa Barbara Oil Spill: A Retrospective." Yearbook of
the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers 64.1 (2002): 157-62. Ucsb. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. PDF file.

pumped back down the well and this caused a disastrous pressure increase.7 A natural gas
blowout occurred from this and the hole was capped initially, but this led to a tremendous
buildup of pressure.8 This created five breaks in a fault on the ocean floor, releasing oil and gas
all throughout the Santa Barbara Channel.9 It took eleven days to cap the rupture and in this time
35 miles of coastline were oiled and 200,000 gallons of oil came to the surface.10 The spill killed
dolphins and birds on a massive scale and response methods were so primitive at the time that
straw was used to soak up the oil that was found. An inquiry into the spill later on found that
since the rig was beyond California waters as designated by the OCS, Union Oil didnt have to
comply with California standards, which more much stricter than the federal governments.11
These revelations, combined with the devastation of the spill, led to a public outcry which was
worsened by the comments from the President of Union Oil, Fred Hartley, who exclaimed I am
amazed at the publicity for the loss of a few birds.12 President Richard Nixon, who visited the
site of the spill, better summed up the mood of people towards the spill reflecting that the Santa
Barbara incident has frankly touched the conscience of the American people.13 Additionally,
Nixons Panel on Oil Spills issued a damning report saying The United States does not have at
this time sufficient technical or operational capability to cope satisfactorily with a large scale
7 Ibid
8 "1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill." Ucsb. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2016.
9 Ibid
10 Ibid
11 Ibid
12 "The Santa Barbara Oil Spill: A Retrospective."
13 "Richard Nixon: Remarks Following Inspection of Oil Damage at Santa Barbara Beach." Ucsb. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

spill in the marine environment.14 To his credit, the Nixon rectified these shortcomings. He used
Executive Order 11472 to create The Environmental Quality Council and the Citizens' Advisory
Committee on Environmental Quality a few months after the spill to examine environmental
issues.15 This was only the start of a range of initiatives that the Santa Barbara spill caused on a
state and national level that would inspire the environmentalism movement and change how oil
was regulated and drilled. It led to the first Earth Day in 1970 and catalyzed a grassroots
movement that received 100,000 signatures to ban offshore drilling in California.16 Offshore
drilling was actually banned in California for a decade and a half after the spill17 and the
California Environmental Quality Act was passed, requiring state and local agencies to identify
the environmental impacts of their actions and to try and mitigate those impacts.18 On a national
level, the Environmental Protection Agency was established19 and the Coastal Zone Management
Act was passed which requires states to review federal actions that would affect their land and
water in coastal zones.20 Also, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 forced federal
agencies to consider the environmental impacts of their proposed actions and what reasonable
alternatives existed.21 The spill also created a movement to update National Contingency Plans
and this was done in Clean Water Act of 1972 and added a framework to NCPs for responding to
14 "First Report of the President's Panel on Oil Spills." Gpo. United States Government Publishing
Office, n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.
15 Ibid
16 "The Santa Barbara Oil Spill: A Retrospective."
17 Ibid
18 "Frequently Asked Questions About CEQA." Resources.ca. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
19 "The Santa Barbara Oil Spill: A Retrospective."
20 OCS Lands Act History

oil spills and created a fund for federal appropriations that could be used for cleanup and
restoration.22 Overall, Nixons words rang true when examining the arc of history. The Santa
Barbara incident really did touch the conscience of the American people and created the
foundations for much of the current laws we have today to respond to oil spills. Yet, while the
Santa Barbara spill was instrumental in creating the laws and regulations we have to deal with oil
spills, it would take another spill of epic proportions to bring this patchwork of laws and
regulations together into one overall national bill regarding oil spills.
March 24, 1989 was set to another pristine day in Prince William Sound, Alaska until a
horrific accident occurred. Shortly after midnight, the tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in
Prince William Sound, Alaska.23 This caused the largest oil spill in U.S. history with the oil
spreading over 3,000 square miles and onto over 350 miles of beaches in Prince William
Sound.24 Over 11 million gallons of crude oil was spilled and the size of the spill and its remote
location made response efforts difficult.25 The entire commercial fishing industry in Prince
William Sound was at risk as well as shore birds, waterfowl, sea otters, and whales.26 The
response to the spill was facilitated through the Coast Guard, the EPA, and NOAA and they
attempted to burn, boom and skim, and use dispersants to mitigate the effects of the oil.
21 "National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)." Encyclopedia of Environment and Society (n.d.): n.
pag. Noaa. Noaa. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. PDF file.
22 National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP) Overview.
23 Skinner, Samuel, and William Reilly. Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. N.p.: n.p., 1989. Uscg. Web. 13 Mar.
2016. PDF file.
24 Ibid
25 "Exxon Valdez Spill Profile." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.
26 Ibid

However, none of these responses were initially effective as unfavorable weather, a lack of
resources and coordination on-site, and a difficult oil type made burning, skimming, and
dispersing nearly impossible.27 The contingency plans for the area didnt provide clear guidelines
on spills in remote areas or consider equipment, manpower, and logistical problems associated
with such a large spill in a remote area.28 Thus it was obvious that Alaska wasnt prepared for this
kind of spill and that reforms would need to occur to the patchwork of laws and regulations that
made up the oil spill policy of the United States at the time. The National Response Teams
report to the president made this clear and specified how they recommended that Congress
should enact comprehensive oil spill liability and compensation provisions as well as improve
coordination between federal, state, and local authorities in order to ensure a more rapid
cleanup.29 They also suggested to reform National Contingency Plans, focus on the biological
resources in the area affected by the spill, and update the Clean Water Act.30 Many of these issues
were rectified by passing the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which was a direct response to the Exxon
Valdez spill. It consolidated many laws, regulations, and agencies that existed before the Exxon
Valdez and streamlined them so oil spills could be more effectively responded to.31 OPA
federalized responses to oil spills, created Area Committees that would make Area
Contingency Plans for the President to approve, and required vessels to prepare their own

27 Ibid
28 Skinner, Samuel, and William Reilly. Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.
29 Ibid
30 Ibid
31 Ramseur, Jonathan L. Oil Spills in U.S. Coastal Waters: Background and Governance. Washington,
D.C.: Congressional Research Service, 2010. Web. 13 Mar. 2016. PDF file.

response plans and submit these plans to a government entity.32 It also allows for damages to be
recovered from the loss of the use of natural resources due to a spill, economic losses after an oil
spill to be recovered without requiring proof of actual harm, and requires all vessels operating in
U.S. waters to be double-hulled by 2015-16.33 These last three points of OPA have had a major
effect on declines in the amount of spills due to the increased spill liability.34 The amount of
gallons spilled decreased by almost 60% from 1990 to 2009 according to data from the Coast
Guard and this is a crucial statistic in validating the success of regulations and is a positive
development despite oil spills still occurring.
While the 1969 Santa Barbara spill and the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill were devastating in
their scope and effects, neither can compare to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in terms of oil
spilled, environmental effects, or lives lost. First and foremost, the Deepwater Horizon spill was
a tragedy, claiming the lives of eleven people. It happened due to the incorrect type of cement
being used to plug the exploration well of the Macondo Prospect on Mississippi Block 252.35
This led to oil and gas bursting into the oil pipe and when the blowout preventer failed to stop
this a disaster was imminent.36 The explosions on the Deepwater Horizon rig occurred shortly
after this and the Deepwater Horizon began to burn and oil was also gushing out of the
exploration well.37 Now the situation moved to the phase of cleanup and response it was obvious
32 Ibid
33 Ibid
34 Ibid
35 Pavia, Robert. Class 17. Lecture. Savory 155, Seattle. 1 Mar. 2016. Lecture.
36 Ibid
37 Ibid

how unprepared BP was to respond to the situation. As noted in the National Commission on the
BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Report to the President BP had named
Peter Lutz as a wildlife expert on whom it would rely; he had died several years before BP
submitted its plan. This demonstrates what a farce the BP response plan and public outrage only
worsened after it became obvious they lied about the amount spilled. Ultimately, the well wasnt
closed off until almost three months after the initial disaster occurred and the well ended up
leaking almost 5 million barrels38. The cleanup process lasted months and involved booming and
skimming as well as it-situ burning, oil eating bacteria, and underwater dispersants.39 The spill
hit Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas and caused billions to be lost in the GDP
of those states.40 After all the oil had spilled, National Commission concluded that systemic
failures by industry management and also by failures of government to provide effective
regulatory oversight of offshore drilling were ultimately two of the biggest factors in the spill
occurring.41 However, while both the government and oil companies share blame in the tragedy,
BP and its collaborators definitely made decisions that endangered the lives of the men aboard
the Deepwater Horizon platform. This is seen in a Congressional hearing involving Steven
Newman, the President of Transocean, who admitted that the Deepwater Horizon rig wasnt even
under a US flag while drilling in the Macondo Prospect. This means that safety inspections were
much less thorough as pointed out by Congressman Jerrold Nadler who said that U.S flagged
38 "About the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill." NOAA Gulf Spill Restoration RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar.
2016.
39 "Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling." Gpo. United States
Government Publishing Office, n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.
40 Ibid
41 Ibid

inspections take 2 to 3 weeks while the safety inspections of foreign flagged rigs such as
Deepwater Horizon takes 48 hours.42 While this is a minute part of a huge exchange that went
on during this Congressional hearing, it reflects the overall culture of the oil industry playing by
their own rules and skirting regulations in order to save time and money. One of the biggest
problems that the National Commission identified was the role of the American Petroleum
Institute as a standard-setter for drilling safety while being the industrys principal lobbyist and
public policy advocate.43 This conflict of interest means the API undermines itself by creating
purposefully weak regulations which were a huge issue in the Deepwater Horizon spill.44 Since
Congress was so gridlocked in 2010, no major oil related legislation passed it. Therefore, the
Obama administration took matters into their own hands and in May 2010, the Secretary of the
Interior issued Secretarial Order No. 3299 which eliminating the Minerals Management Service
and replaced it with three new bodies.45 These are the Center for Offshore Safety, the Joint
Industry Task Forces, and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement which are all
meant to increase oversight and the ability to investigate and levy penalties and punishments on
companies.46 This follows the recommendation made by the National Commission47 and while

42 United States. Cong. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Deepwater Horizon:
Oil Spill Prevention And Response Measures, And Natural Resource Impacts. Hearings, May. 19, 2010.
111th Cong. 2nd sess. Washington: GPO, 2011. Print.
43 "Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling."
44 Ibid
45 Haquet, Caroline. "Macondo: The Disaster That Changed the Rules." Scor. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar.
2016. PDF file.
46 Ibid
47 "Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling."

these changes havent been as expansive as the ones after Santa Barbara and Exxon Valdez, they
still mark major reforms of the offshore drilling industry to make it more accountable and safe.
Over the course of this essay, I found that several themes began to emerge in all three
spills I decided to focus on. These were the influence of oil companies on making regulations
and laws, how a public outcry leads to legislative and regulatory action, the evolution of OCS
regulations, how an oil company will always play dumb when a spill occurs, how spillers are
starting to be held accountable, and most importantly, how disasters are needed for reforms to
occur. While I didnt initially want to believe it, that is the cold, hard truth. There is a path from
the Platform Alpha spill to the Deepwater Horizon spill where it is possible to follow the
regulations and laws that have been made, but we cannot forget that people and animals had to
suffer and die for these changes to occur. Yet despite all this, we cannot be dejected. The
regulations and laws regarding oil have worked. The amount of spills and the frequency of spills
has been trending downwards for almost a generation now. Our laws and regulations are now
fairer and they have mitigated the effects of oil spills and compensate those who are hurt by
them. While there is still a ways to go with the reforms that need to occur, history tells us that we
are well on our way to an even more regulated and safe oil industry.
Word Count: 2978

References
"OCS Lands Act History." Boem. US Government, n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.

Pratt, Joseph A. Letting the Grandchildren Do It: Environmental Planning during the Ascent of Oil
as a Major Energy Source. 4th ed. Vol. 2. N.p.: U of California, 1980. 28-61. Web.
"National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP) Overview." EPA.
Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2016.
Clarke, Keith C., and Jeffrey J. Hemphill. "The Santa Barbara Oil Spill: A Retrospective." Yearbook
of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers 64.1 (2002): 157-62. Ucsb. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.
PDF file.
"1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill." Ucsb. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2016.
"Richard Nixon: Remarks Following Inspection of Oil Damage at Santa Barbara Beach." Ucsb. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.
"First Report of the President's Panel on Oil Spills." Gpo. United States Government Publishing
Office, n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.
"Frequently Asked Questions About CEQA." Resources.ca. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
"National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)." Encyclopedia of Environment and Society (n.d.): n.
pag. Noaa. Noaa. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. PDF file.
Skinner, Samuel, and William Reilly. Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. N.p.: n.p., 1989. Uscg. Web. 13 Mar.
2016. PDF file.
"Exxon Valdez Spill Profile." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.
Ramseur, Jonathan L. Oil Spills in U.S. Coastal Waters: Background and Governance. Washington,
D.C.: Congressional Research Service, 2010. Web. 13 Mar. 2016. PDF file.

Pavia, Robert. Class 17. Lecture. Savory 155, Seattle. 1 Mar. 2016. Lecture.
"About the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill." NOAA Gulf Spill Restoration RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 14
Mar. 2016.
"Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling." Gpo. United States
Government Publishing Office, n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.
Haquet, Caroline. "Macondo: The Disaster That Changed the Rules." Scor. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar.
2016. PDF file.
United States. Cong. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Deepwater Horizon:
Oil Spill Prevention And Response Measures, And Natural Resource Impacts. Hearings, May. 19,
2010. 111th Cong. 2nd sess. Washington: GPO, 2011. Print.